Hamilton — lights on, lights off; lights on, lights off…

This post originally appeared on Wallyhood, the Wallingford, Seattle neighborhood blog. Visit us for more Wallingford news.

(By Margaret)

Folks living adjacent to Hamilton International Middle School may have noticed that the school’s outside lights and the lights inside the gym are turning off and on during odd hours. My first thought: could it be the legendary ghost, roaming the halls once again, now that the school remodel is complete? Nah! She only hangs out in the bathroom on the second floor.

The real answer comes from Michael Romero, the project manager for Hamilton’s. Michael issued a memorandum this week that explains the problem:

SUMMARY: AN ERROR IN CONTROLS PROGRAMMING HAS LEFT EXTERIOR LIGHTS ON AT THE IMPROPER TIMES — THIS SITUATION IS BEING ADDRESSED NOW.

Thank you to some of our neighbors who have pointed out that exterior and gym lighting has been on at odd hours. We’ve been working through this over the week trying to find out the cause, and we believe we’ve found the problem — an electronic ‘switch’ that should have assumed the lights were to be off was set to assume the lights were on, and so the lights have been on 24 hours a day, as far as we’re able to determine right now.

We’re continuing to test this and project staff will be on site after hours to ensure that the lights are being turned off at the proper time. Seattle Public Schools has directed that the exterior lights at the playfield are to be turned off at 8:00 PM, and the gym lights are to be turned off when not in use. Please note that custodial staff will occasionally turn the lights on after hours as part of normal maintenance and cleaning, but the lights should typically be off at night unless the gym is in use.

I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, and again want to thank those folks who have contacted Seattle Schools to let us know the lighting system was not operating properly. As always, please feel free to contact me if you have questions or concerns — I can be reached by email at mbromero@heery.com, or you can reach me at my mobile phone at 206.898.2381 if you have any concerns that need to be addressed outside of regular office hours.

Neighbor Nancy provided us with some bright images of the lights burning at night, as seen from Woodlawn.